| Airplanes can do over the horizon missions. Battleships aren’t useful for that. Missile cruisers/destroyers are the battleship replacements. But airplanes can also carry and launch missiles even better, with some warning and planning. Battleships are useful for the naval equivalent of a bar brawl or a street gang fight. Aka up close, nasty, ‘punch them in the face until they can’t get up again’. They’re the equivalent of Mike Tyson in his prime for that. Which even now would have some PR value, and no matter the time period will always be a spectacle. But tactics have evolved more since then, and we just don’t have those type of fights that much anymore. And when we do, we just bring a ‘gun’ instead of relying on our ‘fists’. Of course, anything is possible and maybe we’ll turn New Jersey into a spaceship to fight our space naval battles in a hundred years. Odds are low though. |